My Humble Thoughts On a Classic

I must admit, this one was not even on my list of books to read. The only reason I ended up reading the classic tale of the infamous vampire, was because I completed my previous book while on holiday and neglected to carry a new one. And since this one was already downloaded on the kindle (free of cost apparently) I decided to give it a go.
There have been film, television, stage and even comic book adaptations of the original tale by Stoker. So there is nothing about the story that I can tell that we don’t already know. Dracula is perhaps the most popular character from the horror genre and perhaps the most iconic vampire (yes even more than Edward Cullen!) to have captured the imagination and frighten the souls for over two centuries.

What struck me the most about the story was the manner in which it is told. The entire narrative progresses through journal entries, letters and telegrams. At no point does the author step in as the voice of God to keep the pace moving. Not only did this means of story telling give readers a better understanding of the characters but also gave us the chance to view the situation from their perspective. I know that many novels have stories told through the perspective of the characters, but here it felt natural since we weren’t privy to someone’s inner thoughts or some abstract means of psychological journey. Instead we read it as someone’s own penned notes and thoughts. Almost as if we were reading a friend’s personal diary.

I have to admit that the rating is a reflection of my feelings regarding the climax of the lore. The way in which the titular character meets his end was rather lack lustre. But perhaps for its time it did provide a rather edgy conclusion.

On the horror scale it isn’t as scary as I thought it would be, and that’s actually a good thing since I am not a fan of the horror genre. Although there are moments when the journal entries did get a tad spooky for me to continue at night, forcing me to pause and resume the following morning.

Despite my rating, I would highly encourage readers (preferably the younger ones) to grab this classic and have a read. If not for the story then for at least the manner in which it is told. It would be wonderful to see how many readers take a hint from the author and begin penning their own journals. Who knows? Perhaps their entries might find their way into a future classic!